golden | peter parker

four

Penny was riding the elevator up to the top floor of The Daily Bugle. Her hands were sweating so she tried to wipe them off on the walls. She had absolutely no idea how she was going to tell J Jonah Jameson, the freaking editor in chief of the entire newspaper, that she was quitting her internship.

The elevator dinged and its doors slid open. As Penny slowly stepped out she was met with a hectic environment; reporters and journalists running back and forth trying to get tomorrows copy finished and ready to print.

She made her way to the secretary in front of Mr. Jameson's office. "Hey Andrea, can I see Mr. Jameson for a second?" Penny asked, fiddling with the camera around her neck. Andrea seemed to be on the phone with someone, but nodded her head at Penny's question.

Penny stepped into his office and saw that it was empty. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she sat down in the chair, collecting her thoughts.

After two minutes the door swung open violently as Mr. Jameson entered the room yelling into his phone. "I don't care how allusive they are! Get me a photo of that damn wedding!" He furiously hung up.

Penny was shocked at his rage but chose not to speak until he acknowledged her.

"Ah, Penny! What can I do for you?" He spoke, much calmer this time.

"Well actually sir, I wanted to talk to you about my internship." Penny said wringing her hands together.

"Perfect! So did I. You are quite the photographer, and even an old fellow like me would be blind to not see your talent. 15 years of age, and you could almost become senior photographer for my company," J smiled at her, which was a rare occasion.

Penny gasped, not knowing how to respond. "M-Me? Senior photographer? Of, of the whole Newspaper?" She blabbered in shock.

But J continued, "Keyword almost. Every time you hand in a portfolio of photos, every single one makes it into the paper for the next day. But the one photo you have not managed to capture, is a photo of Spiderman." 

"I'm afraid I don't understand sir," Penny knitted her eyebrows together in confusion.

"I'll break it down for you. You get me exclusive photos of the Spiderman by the end of the week and I will give you 1 of the 3 senior photographer positions. Fail to get me them, and you will lose your internship. I need a photographer than can take any photo, and that includes the Spidermenace," Mr. Jameson said while puffing on his cigar.

Penny stopped breathing. Of course she came into his office ready to quit her internship, but after hearing that she could achieve her life goal at the age of 15, she was ready to do whatever it took to get these photos.

"So, what would uh, what would being a senior photographer do for my schedule?" She asked, hope radiating off of her, maybe a bit too excessively.

"Well for starters, you would work from home 6 days of the week. Only one day, and you can choose it, would you have to come in to the office for an hour maybe even two if the day is hard. Any photos you take you can email to me and I will send them to the printing press."

"Oh wow," Penny breathed out, a dreamy glint in her eye.

"So, what did you want to discuss about your internship?" J said, curious as to what she would say.

"Oh, um. It's just that I got assigned a really big project in school. And it's like, really important, and I just was unsure as to how I would balance being here 3 hours a day and this massive project that I have," Penny said looking down at the floor.

"Take your office time you have now and focus on getting those photos of Spiderman, and your project or whatever. Don't come back until this Saturday for your usual 7-10 pm shift. And if I don't have those photos by 5 pm on Sunday, you're fired. That's five whole days. Now get outta here, I gotta come up with headlines," Mr. Jameson said while opening his laptop.

Penny stood up and walked out heading towards the elevators, not even bothering to say goodbye to Andrea. She had so much to process, and had no clue where to even begin. She checked her phone and saw that it was 3:45.

For starters though, she now knew where her opinion landed on Spiderman. She despised him. He was the soul reason that she wouldn't get her dream job. No one had ever managed to get even one decent photo of him, and now she was supposed to find him within 5 days? She slumped her shoulders as she cursed Spiderman out in her head.

Penny started her sulk home when she passed by her favorite sandwich shop. She decided to stop by and get a bag of sour gummy worms.

"Afternoon, Mr. Delmar!" Penny called as she strolled up to the counter.

"Penelope! Welcome back, long time no see," He chattered with her as he rung up her snack.

"Yeah well, I work too hard," Penny laughed as Mr. Delmar gave her her change.

"Hey Mr. Delmar! What's up?" Penny heard a voice behind her call out. She turned and saw none other than Peter Parker.

"Oh, hey Peter," She smiled as she stepped aside and started eating her gummy worms.

"Penny, hey! You know about Mr. Delmar's?" He asked as Mr. Delmar started making Peter's usual, a number 5 with pickles smushed down real flat.

"Yeah, best sandwich in Queens," Penny said winking in Mr. Delmar's direction.

"You kids flatter me too much," He chuckled as he put Peter's money in the cash register.

"So are you busy right now? Like, are you free to start our project?" Peter asked as he leaned against the counter.

"Actually, yeah. My schedule cleared up really nicely. Do you wanna go back to your place? I have an annoying little brother," Penny sighed, annoyed just thinking about Noah.

"Yeah that's totally cool. We can start to- Thanks Mr. Delmar, we can map out what our main focus can be on the superheroes. And for our prototype we could try and replicate some sort of pill that gives you energy or something?" Peter brainstormed while taking his sandwich.

"Superheroes, huh? How 'bout that Spiderman, he's pretty cool," Mr. Delmar said leaning his elbows on the cash register.

Penny scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Spiderman is pretentious. He's supposedly saving people but wears a mask. If he was 100% a good guy he wouldn't go around wearing that, that onesie, like he was hiding something. I don't trust the guy."

Peter was taken aback. He didn't realize Penny had such strong feelings about his alter ego. And as much as he didn't want to expose his identity, he needed to at least stick up for Spiderman.

"Well maybe he genuinely wants to do good things, but is scared of how the police would react if they knew who he was. Cause, like, he is kind of doing their job better than they are," Peter said crossing his arms, looking to Mr. Delmar for support. However he simply went to the back, leaving the two kids to have their own discussion.

"Look, I just have my own personal vendetta against him. Nothing could make me like him. Anyway, should we head back to your place now? I mean your sandwich isn't exactly getting fresher," Penny joked. Peter wanted to keep talking but nodded his head, letting the subject drop.

They walked out together silently, neither one of them knowing exactly how to start a new conversation. Too many awkward things had happened to them today.

"Uh, just so you know, my Aunt May might freak when she sees you. Not that it'll be a bad thing! It's just you're a girl and, even though it's just a project, she'll just poke fun at you. And if it makes you uncomfortable just tell me, and I'll get her to stop, because trust me it gets unbearable," Peter said shaking his head at his overprotective Aunt.

"Peter, she sounds lovely," Penny said as she knocked Peter with her shoulder. They smiled at each other and started walking to his apartment.